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A late debris caution changed the outcome of the NASCAR Cup Series race at Michigan on Sunday. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

NASCAR defends Michigan debris caution following driver criticism

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Tony Stewart were amongst the most vocal after the event

June 19, 2017

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NASCAR officials received a considerable amount of criticism on Sunday night due to a late debris caution that completely changed the course of the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway.

Kyle Busch was leading the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race with 21 laps to go when race control called for a debris caution. Busch was gambling on fuel mileage and may have been able to capture his first victory of the season without the yellow flag.

Instead, he was forced to settle for seventh.

Kyle Larson, running second at the time, capitalized on his misfortune and won the race, but not before several crashes eliminated numerous cars from the lead lap. Tony Stewart was the most vocal critic of the sanctioning body after the event, understandable, considering that he lost three Stewart-Haas Racing entries to the crashes that followed the questionable late race caution.

It's a shame that so many drivers and teams day was ruined by the results of another "debris" caution towards the end of the race today.

The three-time champion wasn’t alone in his frustration as Dale Earnhardt Jr. chimed in with an opinion on Periscope after the event too.

"I don't know why they've got to throw so many damn debris yellow," he said. "The purpose of having stages was really because the networks want more cautions, more restarts, because people tune in when we have a caution. They tune in for a restart. That's the whole reason why we have the stages to try to create a little more drama, so I don't know why we keep throwing the damn debris yellows and stuff."

NASCAR responded to the criticism on Monday morning in the form of Scott Miller, senior vice president of competition, who defended the decision on Sirius XM’s ‘The Morning Drive’ radio program.

"We use all the resources that we have to try to identity what it is that is out there - that being camera, turn spotters and the communication that we've got around the race track to different people who may be able to see it," Miller said.

"If we are actually able to identify what it is and feel like it's something that is OK to leave out there, then we'll do so. But if we can't identify what it is exactly and it could pose something dangerous, then we'll usually, or almost always, error on the side of caution and safety and put the caution out in those circumstances. Sometimes it's untimely and a little bit unfortunate, but we do have to do our job and make sure that everybody is safe."